(Diocese of SC) Group Attempts to Mislead Clergy; Unauthorized Use of Diocesan Seal and Name

Posted by Kendall Harmon

...it was extremely disturbing to learn that on Wednesday afternoon, November 7, 2012, a majority of the clergy of the Diocese of South Carolina received an email that pretended to be from the Diocese of South Carolina but in fact was not. The sender of the email was not identified beyond an email address registered to an organization in Florida named “Domain Discreet Privacy Service”. The corresponding web page is hosted by a San Francisco organization stating: “This temporary landing page will be replaced when you publish your site.”

The email was an invitation to a “Clergy Day for the Diocese,” to be hosted at Holy Communion, Charleston and presided over by Bishop. Charles von Rosenberg (A retired bishop from Tennessee).

There are several crucial facts that need to be addressed regarding this announcement.

Chip Johnson, Absolutely correct! Not many will be fooled. It is not just clergy that receive emails from the diocese’s own email address. Us laity do too. The diocesan e-newsletter is also sent by the diocese using the diocese’s own @dioceseofsc.org email address.

WAIT! Did I not click submit? ACK! Anyway, to answer Christopher Johnson, Yes, it is true that someone (most likely either Steve Skardon or the Forum) has been encouraging lay and clergy delegates to not attend the Nov. 17th Special Convention of the diocese. I believe such information was on both Skardon’s website and the Forum’s website but has been taken down now.

“if I was a parish priest considering leaving the Diocese of SC to realign with TEC, this sort of duplicity might make me reconsider.”

Let’s wait and see where it really came from. This seems so obviously bogus, and bogus in a way that would certainly come to light even if everybody initially took it at face value—I’ll be interested to see what Bp von Rosenberg has to say about his understanding of the event. It’s so ill-conceived, it almost looks like a prank.

Yes, a second e-mail has gone out again to confuse the clergy. You are right #17. This time the place has been changed as Holy Communion’s Rector made it clear that this is not happening in his parish. He was told that it was to be a small group and hence even more lies and confusion.